Education researchers
have been seething since the Education Department's research arm announced that
it would not publish a long-awaited, federally commissioned report on bilingual
education. The department denies any political motive, noting that peer
reviewers described the study as terminally flawed. But given the politically
charged nature of the issue, the administration would be wise to make this
controversy go away. It could accomplish that by quickly conveying ownership of
the study to the researchers, who could then publish it privately and let the
public judge the work for itself.

The federally
commissioned study was supposed to summarize existing data to help us determine
whether bilingual education helps students who speak other languages learn to
read English. The answer is crucial - millions of American children come from
homes where languages other than English are spoken. The issue is also
politically explosive because of ballot initiatives in California and Arizona,
where voters limited bilingual education after ethnically inflammatory campaigns.

The study, which has
been talked about for years, is still not out. But it is known that the
researchers conclude that bilingual education is helpful to those learning
English. That conflicts with the views of some powerful Republicans and
conservatives who view such programs as useless or downright harmful.

Given all that, it is
natural that some academics would question whether the government backed away
from the study because of its conclusions, not its methodology. The Bush
administration deserves praise for wading into this politically explosive issue
at all. But given the sensitive nature of the subject, it should go out of its
way to dispel the impression that the study is being deep-sixed for political
reasons. The way to do that, the department seems to recognize, is to surrender
the copyright to the researchers right away so they can publish it
independently.